What do people think about using a small amount of honey, say around 12-16oz per gallon, and then making up for it with some sugar and/or juice?

I'm completely new to mead, but have an extra pack of Montrachet yeast and thinking about giving it a try. Even though it wouldn't be mead exactly, what do you think would work well for a spiced mead/cider hybrid?

What do people think about using a small amount of honey, say around 12-16oz per gallon, and then making up for it with some sugar and/or juice?

I'm completely new to mead, but have an extra pack of Montrachet yeast and thinking about giving it a try. Even though it wouldn't be mead exactly, what do you think would work well for a spiced mead/cider hybrid?

Well, you could do that, and it would likely be drinkable, but it wouldn't be mead & I'm not sure it could technically be considered a cyser either. The basic idea with mead & cyser is to get all that honey flavour or honey & apple flavour. All you get from plain sugar is alcohol. IMHO, you'd be getting a much less flavourful version of mead or cyser by using sugar. That's my 2 cents worth. Regards, GF.

I was thinking about this a bit more last night. You'll probably want to double the honey to gallon of juice ratio to get a cyser. The one I'm working on right now is 2lbs to 1 gallon. I may add a pound of brown sugar towards the end of it or I may add more honey.

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What you have there is a pretty nice sounding recipe for a cider/apple wine with honey and spices. I wouldn't get hung up over semantics. You can call it dishwater and it will still taste OK. My suggestion--when it's finished, bottle it & make some pretty labels. String together some random set of letters to make an unprounounceable name. When people ask what it is, say "It's a family recipe from back in the Old Country."